1634 Million Kgs (that's 3594,8 million lbs) in minerals, metals and fuels. That includes:
- 224826,297 cubic meters gas (7939665,75 cubic feet)
- 310499 litres oil (82025,1581 US gallons)
- 29728 Kg cement (65539,0213 lbs)
- 421 Kg Lead (928,15 lbs)
- 13442 Kg Iron Ore (29634,54 lbs)
- 2577 Kg Bauxite (5681,31 lbs) for aluminium production
- 266629 Kg Coal (587816,32 lbs)
- 9996 Kg Phospates (22037,4 lbs)
- 49018 gram Gold (1729 oz)
- 594 Kg Copper (1309,55 lbs)
- 12899 Kg Salt (28437,43 lbs)
- 8737 Kg Clay (19261,79 lbs)
- 305 Kg Zinc (672,41 lbs)
- 730940 Kg Stone, Sand and Gravel (1611446,86 lbs)
Source: "Blinkt alle goud? Mijnbouw, ecologie, en mensenrechten" report available on http://www.mo.be/fileadmin/pdf/MO-paper_Mijnbouw.pdf
Original data from the Mineral Information Institute (2008)
That is how much every American being born today is expected to use up throughout his or her life, maintaining current consumption patterns.
There are at least three important considerations directly related to global warming coming from this, and then a number of other considerations relating for example to sustainability, biodiversity, exploitation of vulnerable and poor people in the regions where many of these are obtained, etc.
Relevance for Global Warming
The first important element to remember is that although these numbers pertain to the US, it is unlikely that Europeans, Japanese or any other rich nation's citizens rate any less gluttonous. In fact, if we take CO2 emissions as an indicator of what we might expect in terms of raw material consumption, well, despite the US's bad reputation, some European countries rate almost as bad, Canada and Australia rate worse, and middle eastern oil-States rate gigantically worse. So they probably do similar when it comes to resource consumption.
So, to get any idea of the strain we put on our resources, multiply the numbers above by the number of Americans, but also Europeans, rich middle-easterns, Aussies, Japanese, Canadians, and a growing number of Southeast Asians and Chinese.
Clearly, even with the best of hopes in regards of recycling, improvements in mining and efficiency in the usage of materials, crisis notwithstanding, this sort of consumption raises big questions in terms of sustainability, in the broad sense, i.e., can the Earth actually keep up the supply?
But there are also direct global warming effects to this level of consumption of minerals, metals and fuels:
- mining uses up enormous amounts of energy, and emits large amounts of greenhouse gases. You have just to look at the extraction of Canada's tar sands to make oil, for example, to realise that. Canada's own National Energy Board says the production of one single barrel of oil from tar sands emits 75 Kg of greenhouse gases.
While tar sands are an extreme example, mining most of the above mentioned raw materials involves huge amounts of energy and emissions, simply from the machinery involved.
- Mining also generates emissions by releasing greenhouse gases from natural sinks. One obvious example is the destruction of forests for the purpose of mining. This happens, again, in Canada, on account of tar sand exploitation, but also a bit all over the world, especially in developing countries with little to show in terms of environmental protection rules, or few ways to enforce them.
Tropical deforestation is currently responsible for about 20% of emissions, both by burning and by the emission of gases during the rotting of cut wood.
Another example of an effect is coal mining which, according to the EPA, is one of the main emitters of methane, because of the methane that exists within coal and which gets released when coal gets mined. Yet another example, oil in Northern Alaska. It is so cold there they actually have to spend huge amounts of energy warming up the tundra to get the oil out. Imagine how much that emits, and don't forget that the tundra also stores enormous amounts of methane which then goes into the atmosphere to warm up the environment even more.
- Transportation and processing - Most of the developed world is now short on most of the above materials. This means they need to come from elsewhere. Even when they still exist, they are often more expensive to mine, due to scarcity and stricter regulations, meaning the market forces have shut down the mines in rich countries and buyers source their materials from other countries. That means all of the above gets transported from mining areas, to the different processing areas, and then to the consumption markets. All of this requires energy.
Add to this that processing itself is often extremely energy intensive, like for aluminium, iron, cement, zinc, to mention but a few.
Using recycled materials helps, but even then, recycled materials are not enough, and they still use a large amount of energy to be reused, even if it is less than the energy necessary for virgin materials.
Beyond Global Warming
Well, all of this lust for raw materials has profound effects on our climate, but exploiting these resources also puts an important strain on the local environment and on local populations, leading to loss of biodiversity, contamination or soil, water and air, often conflict for the possession of the resources, and impoverished local populations who get kicked out from their fields or who lose the forest upon which they depend through the action of governments, militias, or even private 'security' services working for the mining companies.
The loss of biodiversity and the contamination of the local environment is something that is particularly prevalent, especially in developing countries where mining is often either done unofficially, for example in eastern Congo, or in the Amazon; or by large mining or oil companies which can impose their will on unstable or weak authorities, or which simply go there because they have less rules to comply with.
As a result, mining can use unsafe, or dirty chemicals and methods of productions which will severely damage the environment of a large area, especially through the contamination of rivers and underground water sources. The local population seldom receives much of the generated income, but they do have to deal with problems arising from the exploitation of their resources. The Delta region in Nigeria or gold mining in some areas of the Amazon are good examples of what can happen.
This sort of damage happens on a grand scale even in developed countries. Again, the tar sands exploitation in Canada has led to enormous patches of forest being cleared, water sources being contaminated with the run-off from the refinement of the sands, and bird-life, for example is suffering damage all across North America because the area is a breeding area for many bird species. Even here, albeit in a less dramatic fashion, the locals have won little, since most of the labour involved in the exploitation comes from elsewhere, and on temporary contracts, which means they add little but hassle to the local community.
Conflict and human rights' abuses are frequent when the business interests and the interests of the population collide. The most dramatic examples are the ones that have to do with civil strife and guerilla conflicts, where the proceeds from mining end up financing the sides at war. The Blood Diamonds from Sierra Leone and Angola, the Coltan in Eastern Congo.
In places like Burma too, many of these activities are still organised around forced labour by the government itself.
But there can also be abuses when mining companies legally explore mineral resources, especially if property laws are weak or difficult for their holders to enforce against big companies and governments. Oil in South American Indian regions, gold in Mongolia, a number of different minerals in other, less troubled areas of Congo again... Let's not even get into non-mining business like soya, wood and cattle, where this sort of abuse is rampant.
So what can we do?
Well, becoming an activist for all sorts of good causes is always an option, and that will no doubt help. ^_^
Going into politics might help too, if you are any good at it, which I, for example am not.
But it is probably as a consumer that most people can do their bit:
For some types of resources, or goods made from these resources, there are certifications that are supposed to guarantee the origin and manner in which the resources are obtained. Of course, every certification has its flaws and ways to fool the audits, but on average, if it is certified, it is a lot better than if it is not
Buy recycled and recyclable. It is true that recycling still uses energy and pollutes a bit. But a lot less than if the materials used are all virgin materials. For example, if you buy a car, your car dealer should be able to have at least a raw estimate of how much of the brand's production is based on recycled materials. If a company has no data on that, while their competitors do (for example, in the car industry at least some of them do), it probably means they just don't really care about that and use few recycled materials.
As time goes by you can find more and more companies in more and more sectors coming out with figures on their recycled materials usage and their longer term aims.
In the same way it is a good idea to buy stuff that can be recycled. Looking ahead of course. Again, more and more companies provide that type of information, at least if you ask for it.
But the most important thing is:
To consume less.
I know, I know. Everybody is saying that we have to get consumption going again so that we avoid economic meltdown. And to a degree, I admit they are right. But, I hope it has now become patently clear that the level of consumption the west has had for the past while is completely unsustainable. Even if you don't care about the emissions, or the amount of resources we consume, you have to admit that the only way we can get consumption back to its previous level is through giving people as much credit as before, and we have seen where that leads!
So, when I say consume less I mean, consume at a more reasonable level. I'm not saying buy nothing, but you don't really need to change computer every six months, or mobile every three months. Do you have any idea how much stuff is needed to build a laptop, for example? Those 2 or 3 Kg required gigantic amounts of land to be sifted through for minerals, litres of oil for the plastics, for the energy to manufacture it and to transport everything around the world I don't know how many times before the final product ends up on the shop shelf, litres and litres of water, etc, etc.
And this applies to everything from the runners you take jogging and which probably do not have to get thrown out with the next fashion season, to the Hi-fi speakers that still sound pretty good, to the lawnmower which probably just needs to be taken to the shop to fix or to that throw-away bottle of mineral water which can easily be replaced by a refillable one.
And of course, use the car and the plane less, save energy at home, use renewables and all the other things I've been writing about in previous posts.
At the same time, what you do buy, you're better off buying certified, preferably made from recycled materials or natural, renewable materials like wood, and, if you can, preferably local production. That way, not only do you keep down the emissions from transport, but you also promote local employment in a more sustainable way, even from a financial point of view. In fact, I am convinced that even for developing countries it ends up being better if they can grow less dependent on our consumption and bad habits in the west and grow by focusing on their own markets, and their own needs, not our desires.
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